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Supreme Court Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol, "The Opening of the Book of the Law"
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Study for "The Golden Age (Law of Nature)," from the mural series The Opening of the Book of Law, Supreme Court Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol
Study for "The Golden Age (Law of Nature)," from the mural series The Opening of the Book of Law, Supreme Court Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol

Study for "The Golden Age (Law of Nature)," from the mural series The Opening of the Book of Law, Supreme Court Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol

Supreme Court Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol, "The Opening of the Book of the Law"
,
Harrisburg, PA

Object Details

Title:
Study for "The Golden Age (Law of Nature)," from the mural series The Opening of the Book of Law, Supreme Court Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol
Date:
1921–27
Artist:
Medium:
Charcoal, black pastel and graphite on board with framing lines in pastel and graphite
Dimensions
23 x 22 1/2 in.
Classification
No items found.
Credit Line:
Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2015
Description

[bottom right in graphite]: Violet OakleyThe Opening of the Book of the Law, Oakley’s title for the suite of murals in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, is designed as an illuminated manuscript unfolding on the walls of the chamber. The history of law, as researched by Oakley, evolves from ancient to modern times. This study shows Oakley’s concept of “natural Law” in ancient Greece. The Greeks make sacrifice to their gods to sustain the cycles of nature that govern human life.

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The Violet Oakley Experience is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
For her expertise and scholarship on The Violet Oakley Experience, Woodmere thanks Patricia Likos Ricci. The foremost authority on Oakley, she is the Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of the History of Art, and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty at Elizabethtown College.
Woodmere’s website infrastructure and the digitization of the Museum’s collection are made possible by the generous support of Lisa Kabnick and John McFadden.